Corporate Tax Act Essay

The resolution stipulated that any overpayment of salary disallowed as a deduction by the IRS would be repaid to the Osprey Corporation. In late 2010 during an audit by the IRS, $200,000 of Patrick’s compensation, and $150,000 of Dan’s compensation were recharacterized as constructive dividends. This was done because the salaries were found to be excessive. Reg  §1. 162-8 states excessive compensation will be disallowed to the corporation and treated as a constructive dividend to the shareholder. Because the agreement to the resolution was in place prior to their salary payments, the repayments were legally enforceable under state law. As stated by Hoffman, Raabe, Smith and Maloney â€Å"the constructive dividend serves as a substitute for actual distributions and is usually intended to accomplish some tax objective not available through the use of direct dividends. Alternatively the shareholders may be seeking benefits for themselves while avoiding the recognition of income†(2012, 5-16). Because the resolution did contain a repayment provision it should reduce the effect of the constructive dividends on Dan and Patrick. b. Issues A corporation cannot take a deduction from the constructive dividend, and the shareholder must report the amount of the constructive dividend on their tax return. The IRS will recharacterize an item that has been deducted on the corporate tax return to a non-deductible dividend. Constructive dividends are double taxed, first on the corporate level and again at the shareholder level. This characterization results in the IRS denial of the deduction on he corporate level. To determine how the repayment by Dan and Patrick should be treated for tax purposes we must determine whether the repayment can, or should be treated as a deduction or as a credit. c. Discussion In  §162, it states compensation is deductible only to the extent that it is reasonable and is in fact payment purely for services. In a case similar to Dan and Patrick’s sit uation involving excessive compensation, Vincent E. Oswald v. Commissioner, 49 T. C. 645 (1968), the court found the repayments to be a deductible expense. In this case the question was whether, â€Å"under section 162 of the Code, the officers are entitled to a business expense deduction for the calendar year 1968 for the salaries repaid by them to the corporation† (Vincent E. Oswald. 49 T. C. 645 (1968)). The Section 1. 162-1 of the Income Tax Regulations â€Å"provides, in part, that ordinary and necessary expenditures directly connected with or pertaining to the taxpayer’s trade or business are deductible from gross income as business expenses† (Rev. Rul. 69-115, 1969-1 CB 50 — IRC Sec(s). 162). According to the case, the court found that a deduction for ordinary and necessary business expenses would be allowed. If Dan and Patrick sought a credit for the repayment of the taxes, the relief provision contained in IRC section 1341 suggest that a taxpayer may reduce its current years tax by the amount of the extra taxes paid by having to include the income in a previous year. The requirement that a taxpayer be entitled to this deduction has two subsets. One, there must be a deduction as the result of the restoration of income, and two, the deduction must occur under a code section other than section 1341. In a federal case Van Cleave v.

Econ Why People Skip Class Essay

I have come to the conclusion that students skip classes because of their own moral beliefs and decision making process, difficulty in the class and the material, and how interested they are in the subject. The decision making is affected by influences typically from other students most of the time. To the contrary students typically use practical decision making process that range from comparing advantages and disadvantages of attending lectures, also calculating the impact of their workload, and attempting to optimize their use of time. Difficulty in the class and material stand out to be that if they don’t find the material challenging or if they are doing well in the class, they may decide to allot time they would otherwise spend on the class (including attending lectures) to classes they find more challenging, especially at the busiest and most pressure filled times of the semester. Last and not least is the interest of the subject by the student. Its common sense that a student would attend class if his interest is high in that course, but if not interested students would tend to ‘‘slack’’ and find it easy to abolish themselves from the class, However this is beyond the professors control. Generally I have found that if a student generally finds the material the professor is teaching interesting, and he/she is able to connect with students through lecture (put in a way that makes sense), then the professor doesn’t have trouble making the material interesting for students. The opportunity cost for this hypothecs is if you don’t have good decision making, or understanding the material that’s presented to you, and not interested in the class, you are more than likely to skip classes.

Nature-Nurture and the Cloned Human

The three levels in biopsychosocial theory (explained in Myers, 2006) are biological, psychological (e.g., cognitive and emotional influences), and social-cultural (unusual since these influences include those studied by social psychologists, e.g., family, peer, and other group influences).   The influences in the three levels generally interact with each other in accounting for the variability between individuals.   However, if a person wanted to be cloned, the person and the clone should be genetically identical, i.e., a result of the first level.   We do know that identical twins are essentially clones (Myers, 2006). Genetics can fully account for characteristics such as genetic sex, and also can influence or fail to influence other personality characteristics of identical twins.   Influence, however, means that genetics interact with influences from the other two levels.   Until the last paragraph of this paper, the assumption that evidence based on identical twins can be generalized to clones has been accepted. Similar article: The Case of the Boy Who Became a Girl The goal of psychologists studying personality is to account for the variability between individuals.   Behavioral-genetic research, which has been furthering this goal, has been motivated by findings that similarities between identical twins do not vary as a function of whether the twins were reared together or apart, there is considerable between-twin variability, and adopted children do not share characteristics with their adoptive families but do share them with their biological families (reviewed in Harris, 1995).   There have been consistent findings that 40-50% of the between-individual variability in personality characteristics is attributable to genetics, and the percentage of variability accounted for by genetics depends on the characteristic being studied (reviewed in Harris, 1995). Studies of genetics and IQ scores (reviewed in Neisser, et al., 1999) have provided evidence that genetics account for a large percentage of between-individual (but not between-group) variability in scores (whatever these tests actually measure!), though results can be mediated by other influences, e.g., by social expectations (from level three) and cognition (from level two). For example, children who do not care enough about their grades to appreciate the worksheet and memorization approach that passes for teaching at many schools (social expectations) may interpret these tests (cognitive influences) as yet another obstacle invented by the educational system.   Nonetheless, if you score well on an IQ test, there’s a high probability that your clone will too.   There are genetic predispositions for many characteristics, with varying degrees to which non-genetic factors interact with genetic ones, e.g., depression (Behar, 1980), attitudes (Turner, 1993), alcoholism (Hill, 1990), altruism (Ruston, 1989), shyness (Kagan, Reznick, & Snidman, 1988). Need for Further Research When people think of cloning, they seem to be asking questions such as, â€Å"if Einstein or Mozart were cloned, would the clone grow up to be a scientific or musical genius?†   First, the clones and persons would differ in some or many of   their experiences both before birth (i.e., in the womb, identical twins differ in their positions, access to nutrition, etc.) and   after.   The clones would be predisposed towards scientific or musical accomplishment.   However, Watson and Rayner (1920/2000) demonstrated that classical conditioning resulted in â€Å"Little Albert† becoming frightened of anything furry after only two trials in which the presentation of a white rat was followed by a loud noise.   So who knows what would happen if Einstein’s or Mozart’s clone tripped over an encyclopedia or violin? However, Einstein and Mozart were at the extremes of scientific and musical genius, where genetics are a greater influence than for Aunt Edna, who teaches science at Dung Hill High School, or for Grandpa Patrick, who entertains his family with heart-warming renditions of â€Å"When Irish Eyes are Smiling.†Ã‚   So there should be a high probability that Einstein’s and Mozart’s clones would make important contributions to science and music.   To my knowledge, there have not been identical-twin studies, where one or both twins received historical recognition for their accomplishments. A second type of question is related to possible differences in reproduction and cloning.     Increasingly sophisticated methods of monitoring brain activity, e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging, have resulted in studies that have provided evidence that particular areas of the brain become activated as we develop new abilities and acquire new forms of memories, and that over the course of development, there are permanent changes in a person’s brain (reviewed in Damasio, 2002). Probably the most interesting possible change is related to our understanding that we have an internal world separate from others.   Piaget (1952/1963) studied how such a sense of self developed during childhood, and there’s evidence that different brain areas are activated in response to self-relevant information than in response to other information (reviewed in Zimmer, 2005).     Thus the question arises:   Is it possible for Aunt Edna and her clone to have a shared sense of self? References Behar, D. (1980).   Familial substrates of depression:   A clinical view.   The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 41, 52-56. Damasio, A. R. (2002).   How the brain creates the mind.   Scientific American Special Edition, 12, 4-9. Harris, J. R. (1995).   Where is the child’s environment?   A group socialization theory of development.   Psychological Review, 102, 458-490. Hill, S. Y. (1990).   Personality resemblances in relatives of male alcoholics:   A comparison with families of matched control cases.   Biological Psychology, 27, 1305-1322. Kagan, J., Resnick, J. S., & Sidman, N. (1988).   Biological bases of childhood shyness. Science, 240, 167-171. Myers, D. G. (2006).   Psychology eighth edition in modules.   New York:   Worth. Neisser, U., Boodoo, G., Bouchard, T., Boykin, A. W., Brody, N., Ceci, S. et al. (1999). Intelligence:   Knowns and Unknowns.   In R. J. Sternberg & R. K. Wagner (Eds.), Readings in cognitive psychology (pp. 486-532).   Orlando, Fl:   Harcourt. Piaget, J. (1952/1963).   The origin of intelligence in children.   New York:   Norton. Rushton, J. P. (1989).   Genetic similarity, human altruism, and group selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 12, 503-559. Tesser, A. (1993).   The importance of hereditability in psychological research:   The case of attitudes.   Psychological Review, 100, 129-142. Watson, J. B., & Rayner, R. (1920/2000).   Conditioned emotional reactions.   American Psychologist, 55, 313-317. Zimmer, C. (2005).   The neurobiology of the self.   Scientific American, 293, 92-101.

Tourist Destinations Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Tourist Destinations - Case Study Example Here, I will be discussing the appealing factors that attract tourists to Scotland and the type of tourists who visit Scotland. I will also be identifying the motivations of the tourists that cause the tourist flow to Scotland. One of the main appeal of Scotland as a tourist destination is its natural beauty and wilderness. A large proportion of visitors to Scotland have an interest in wildlife and nature (Mike Watson, 2002). It is promoted as an ecotourism destination. The welfare of wildlife and its natural habitat are given importance, and tourists are expected to leave the precious environment they have come to experience untouched. The highlands and islands of Scotland are hugely important to Scotland's international appeal as a tourist destination. Scotland is internationally renowned for its breathtaking scenery (Scottish Executive, 2004) The highlands of Scotland are renowned as one of the pristine areas of Europe. The glens, mountains, lochs, coasts and islands are home to a range of wildlife. Wildlife nature at its best can be enjoyed here. Amazonia, Scotland's largest indoor rainforest is a major appeal for tourists. It is a unique place where you can explore the flora and fauna of tropical rain forests. The fauna includes spiders, reptiles, monkeys, fish and amphibians. It also conserves various butterflies and birds that fly freely around the Amazonia housing. Another major appeal for ecotourists is Barons Haugh, a community nature reserve. It consists of 107.3 hectares of richly varied habitats for nature lovers. Other habitats include marshland, woodland, meadows, parkland, areas of scrub and a section of the river Clyde. It is the perfect place for walkers looking to explore the habitat. This is a natural site and it has been preserved as such. The Meikle Bin peak present in the forest in Lanarkshire, provide the tourists with a panoramic view over the valley and the whole of central Scotland. The possible motivations of tourists visiting Scotland The most important motivation is Scotland's image as a human, enduring landscape matches, increasing consumer desires for escapism, a stress free environment and tranquility. Continued

Impact transportation has on the economy and the environment Research Paper

Impact transportation has on the economy and the environment - Research Paper Example Products produced in a certain locality can be transported to other regions where they are scarce. In these regions, the prices will be a bit higher. This additional income economically empowers the producers. Efficient transport enhances mobility of people and goods. This saves on time and costs. The people can move easily to their employment places and the businessmen can also transport their products to the markets. This enhances economic activities in the country. Transportation companies also offer employment to many people (Rodrigue & Notteboom, 2013). This employment provides income to the people and reduces unemployment in a given country. A low level of unemployment is an indicator of economic growth. Another economic impact is that transportation enables access to a wider market. This enables division of labor and specialization. This is because when a variety of products can be availed to consumers when they are required from any region, then the producers of that particular region do not have to produce all sorts of products but can specialize in some of the products. Specialization leads to better production methods, which eventually lead firms to increase their production. Increased output leads firms to enjoy the economies of scale hence greater profitability. Higher production also leads to a higher demand for transportation services, which leads to greater profitability for those in the transportation business. Transport also enables companies to get access to inputs and skilled labor. Skilled labor enables firms to use the most efficient and cost effective methods in production. This lowers the cost of production and increases profits for businesses (MaÄ iulis, Vasiliauskas & Jakubauskas, 2009). Indirect effects include lowering of product prices, increase of product variety and purchases by companies in the transport sector. Since transport enhances the mobility of people and commodities, goods can be availed to any region from all

The Effect of Play on Early Literacy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Effect of Play on Early Literacy - Essay Example Research on the relationship between play and literacy emerged as early as 1974, and increased with new insights into the foundations of literacy in the preschool years. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of play in preschool children on early literacy. Further, the theoretical framework provided by Vygotsky and Piaget, and the importance of symbolic play, free play and guided play reinforced by reading from resources rich in vocabulary will be examined. Theoretical Framework for the Play-Literacy Relationship The classic theories of developmental psychologists Piaget and Vygotsky provide strong theoretical frameworks for examining the relationship between play and literacy in early childhood. Piaget’s perspective emphasizes on the value of repeated social pretend play for the acquisition of broad cognitive skills such as symbolic representations and the initiation of literacy skills such as print awareness. Pellegrini and Van Ryzin (2007) state that this approach is based on interactions between individuals and the objects in the physical environment; and has led to the establishment of literacy-enriched play centers as an interventional strategy. Vygotsian theory is based on the role of adults and peers in the acquisition of social literacy practices through play activities. This theory argues that children form literacy concepts and skills through everyday experiences with others including pretend play and bedtime storybook reading. Thus, the young child’s acquisition of literacy is a social, constructive process that begins from early childhood. These classic theories identify behavioral categories apparently shared by play and literacy, including â€Å"pretend transformations, narrative thinking, meta-play talk, and social interaction† (Christie & Roskos, 2009, p.1). On the other hand, they do not explain the dynamics between play and literacy, or the means by which play activity impacts the develo pment of literacy. Learning Through Engagement in Play Activities From birth, children love to learn through play and exploration, which form their primary teachers. In early childhood, mental and physical actions support each other, and learning is a process which engages both the mind and body. It is essential for children to experience life kinesthetically, thereby learning through experiences that utilize all the senses (Dickinson & Tabors, 2001). According to Leong, Bodrova, Hensen & Henninger (1999), play promotes four major skills that are vital for the development of literacy. They include increased ability to learn deliberately with enhancement in cognitive skills, development of symbolic representation, improved oral language, and the introduction of content related literacy skills for play to prepare the way. A valuable aspect of early literacy development is pretend play, which provides extensive opportunities to develop language skills. The amount of time spent by child ren in pretend play corresponds to their performance on language and literacy assessments. Their conversations in the preschool classroom are based on several skills using oral language and print; and the development of these skills is evident by the end of kindergarten (Dickinson & Tabors, 2001). It is clear that play has a great potential for practicing and experimenting

Impact of Standardized terminologies Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Impact of Standardized terminologies - Coursework Example According to (Nolan 2004), NIC is a common terminology with practicing and research nurses. It is a broad, research-based, standardized classification of care-interventions that clinical nurses perform (Nolan 2004). It is important for all-setting clinical communication, documentation, productivity measurement, and integration of data across systems and settings, competency evaluation, effectiveness research, curricular design and reimbursement (Clark & Lang 1992).As a practicing nurse, the Implementation of NIC would have varied and diverse impacts on my nursing practice (Nolan 2004). First, apart from the better communication between other health providers and me, NIC would provide me with an increased visibility and clear view of nursing interventions (Nolan 2004). Second, due to increased enlightenment in nursing interventions I would have improved patient care in my capacity. Third, a practicing nurse with knowledge in nursing informatics, NIC will enhance my data collection abilities and the capabilities to evaluate nursing care outcomes (Nolan 2004). Fourth, I believe NIC will support me in gaining greater adherence to the nursing standards of care (McGonigle & Mastrian, 2015). Five, because competency is very vital in every occupational field, particularly nursing occupation, NIC will facilitate assessment of my nursing competency (Nolan 2004). As a result of these impacts, I will develop a greater experience, knowledge and nursing wisdom that will eventually enhance my nursing

Exploring Community Health Nursing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Exploring Community Health Nursing - Assignment Example On the other hand, the concept of health is broadly defines as a state of well being that results from the harmonious interactions of the body, soul and the mind. Therefore the term community health is defined by meeting the particular needs and wants of a community by identifying the problems they face and managing the interactions within the community (Cradduck, 2000). The community health nurses are generally primary health care providers in various places often working in an expanded role in conjunction with other medical care professionals. In addition to homecare, public and community health care service, community health nurses provide treatment and emergency care services, x-rays and crisis management within the community. Their main purpose is to provide community health promotion services in a specific community in accordance with the philosophy and objectives of the authority and to promote the prevention of diseases, maintain health and the overall health as well as wellb eing of the community. This paper therefore seeks to have an insight on the nature, scope and role of community health nursing, and an analysis of the impact of Public Health Care and the Canadian Community Health Nursing Standards. Community health nurses play a pivotal role in the community as far as health provision is concerned. They may extend these services to within the health centre, schools, community halls or in patient homes, especially the elderly and are intended to provide a healthy way of living whilst reducing the incidences of death and diseases significantly. Community health nursing services may be provided either on an individual basis or a multi disciplinary team. Mostly they work in cross boundary teams to effectively provide sufficient health care to the society. They work with individuals, families, populations, groups, systems and/or society, with the focus being the health of a person or community and from which motivations nursing actions flow. The nursing standards of practice are applied in different settings where people work, live, play, learn and even worship (Warren et al, 2012). This involves working with a diverse array of people who have different backgrounds. For example, they may work with children (infants, school age and adolescents), children with long term disabilities, families, pregnant women, elderly people whose health is deteriorating, individuals with chronic diseases, disadvantages individuals or groups as well as community organizations such as schools, churches and social services agencies. Community health nurses therefore need to have a broad perspective of the roles they play within the community as regards health provision and promotion. In order to perform their tasks in the most professional way CHN need to posses some characteristics and attributes that are useful especially in the field. These attributes assist the nurses to identify and manage any health hazards while containing problems that are exis tent. Therefore they need to be very flexible and be highly adaptable to the different environments. This is because the environments keep changing as well as the pandemics that strike. This calls for nurses with physical and emotional stamina, good communication skills, problem solving skills as well as critical thinking abilities (Goottschalk, 2000). Another characteristic that is crucial is the ability to motivate as well as supervise

Fordism and Post-Fordism as Theories of Work Organisation Essay

Fordism and Post-Fordism as Theories of Work Organisation - Essay Example 54-55), it was not until over twenty years later that the term Fordism came into being. Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Communist imprisoned by Mussolini from 1926 to 1937 (Slattery, 1991, p. 125), authored the article 'Americanism and Fordism' in 1931. In this stinging critique of capitalism, he breaks down the fundamental changes occurring to the characteristics of labour. For 'the purpose of American society-developing in the worker to the highest degree automatic and mechanical attitudes, breaking up the old psycho-nexus of qualified professional work and reducing productive operations exclusively to the mechanical, physical aspect' (Gramsci, 1931, p. 290). Generally, Fordism is defined by standardisation of labour and components, usage of the assembly line, strict specialisation of semi-skilled labour and high production levels. This mass manufacturing depended on a stable economy and a predictable mass consumerism, for 'without the mass consumption of mass-produced products, companies would quickly go bankrupt' (O'Donnell, 1997, p. 252). The fundamental need for so many consumers led to the development of widespread advertising (Kirby et al, 2000, p. 340). Yet what distinguishes this paradigm shift is, as Gramsci noted above, the removal of decision-making power from the worker. A relative contemporary of Ford, Frederick Taylor, proposed that all mental activity should be removed from the factory floor so workers could almost become machines, with their pay tied to personal productivity (O'Donnell, 1997, p. 288). Fordism meant great homogeny, efficiency and output, which in turn meant greater prosperity. However, the strict division of labour created an unmotivated work force increasingly alienated from management. Competitive pay was not sufficient to stop the rapid turnover, and the growth of unions such as Industrial Workers of the World during this period attests to this dissatisfaction (Grint, 1998, p. 284). Additionally, Fordism needed a reliable economy and consumer base-this is illustrated by the number of companies, such as Ford, which only survived the American Great Depression due to large scale government intervention (O'Donnell, 1997, p. 252). Another factor is that drastic increases in productivity of the first stage of Fordism were unique-subsequent changes were less effective, for 'there was a finite limit to, or at least declining return from, the extent to which time and motion studies etc. could increase productivity' (Grint, 1998, p. 284). Once an entire industry converted, it became difficult to continue finding significant ways to heighten productivity and furt her decrease costs. Eventually these disadvantages, along with the rise of a new type of mass consumerism, would set the stage for the conditions the next theory of work organisation is based upon-Post-Fordism. As technological advances and consumer wants became more varied, a new theory of work organisation was proposed in The Second Industrial Divide by Michael Piore and Charles Sabel in 1984. Responding to the economic downturn of the 1970's and the limitations of mass production (Kirby et al, 2000, p. 340), they held that a new system was coming into being, motivated by increasing consumer demand for specialised

Understanding Buyers Value Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Understanding Buyers Value - Essay Example Understanding Buyers Value Michael Porter (1991. pp103) presented an internal value chain of an organization from conceptualization to delivery of products to customers and argued that "Buyer Value is created when a firm lowers its buyer's cost or enhances buyer's performance". From the author's perspective, the buyer's value is the positive perception of the buyer herself/himself that the organization has earned amidst many factors that influence the perception. The factors may be behaviour with the buyer, communications carried out with the buyer, clarity & transparency of information provided to the buyer, understanding of buyer's need, personalization of the solution against buyer's needs, discount levels provided to the buyer, value added services provided to the buyer. and after sales services & product upgradation services provided to the buyer whenever requested. It may be possible that the buyer has carried out competitive pricing analysis before the bargaining and hence the seller has to either justi fy higher price by demonstrating tangible value additions or simply quote lower than competition to sell the products. Hence, Porter's argument about lowering of buyer's cost and enhancing buyer's performance again gets applicable if the buyer appreciates these facts from her/his perspective. The firm’s perspective can at the most be to control the factors (value chain management) that can achieve the positive perceptions of the buyer – what the buyer finally perceives is the actual value achieved by the firm. The author strongly agrees about the theory of reduced sacrifice undertaken by the buyer because it strongly influences the perception of the buyer regarding the firm. Discussion Points Elmaghraby and Keskinocak (2003. pp1288-1289) presented the mechanism of dynamic pricing to get the best benefits out of increased customer demands and reduced inventories. In such cases, the firms tend to increase their prices which definitely tend to increase the sacrifice level of customers to acquire the prices. The author wishes to discuss if such dynamic pricing strategies in the attempt to get the best out of "favorable conditions for the firm" cause long term damage to the value perceptions of the customers which may backfire especially when the demands eases. Slater and Narver (1998. pp1000-1005) presented that long term competitive advantages of companies can be improved by carrying out innovations more towards market orientation than customer orientation. This is primarily because customers are grossly ignorant about their needs. But on the contrary it is true that customers perceive value on their own based on their social influences and past experiences. The author wishes to discuss how companies should be able to control the perceptions of customers to achieve positive buyer value if this theory about market orientation should be trusted Conclusion: The author presented own perspective about buyer's value stating that this largely depends upon the factors that drive positive perceptions in customer's mind. The best that an organization can do is to apply effective efforts to achieve this positive perceptio

Some economists say world and U.S. economic growth is declining. What Assignment

Some economists say world and U.S. economic growth is declining. What do you think Why - Assignment Example Secondly, it entails unregulated access to markets. This implies that countries can freely enter the international market without any restriction. Thirdly, it involves trading without including taxes or other barriers (Brakman 18). Fourthly, it countries are not restricted in accessing market information thus ensuring that companies within are able to get adequate information concerning global market an aspect that makes them competitive. Another significant aspect of free trade is that it involves trade agreements between states. Despite the merits of free trade especially in the efforts to achieve globalization, it has generated criticism not only in developed countries but also in the third world states. The first criticism of free trade is that it retrograde development. According to Friedrich List, a German-American economist, regions that have adequate raw materials and natural resources such Africa and Arab countries develop at a slow rate as compared to states without such resources. This is based on the fact that there was a massive exportation of raw materials that was done forcefully leading to slow economic development in the exporting countries. Free trade is argued to use more resources to distribute. For example, critics indicate that delivering of products to other countries results to an environmental impact due to the fossil fuel generated. The fossil fuel also entails other externalities. The cost of reducing the environmental impact is reflected in the market prices of goods making the whole process of exporting expensive. Another criticism of free trade is that it prevents young industries from developing. Based on the importation of external products for example f rom developed countries, developing countries experience reduction in the demand for local products resulting to restriction of their expansion. The influence of foreign companies is

The International Expansion of Design Practices Essay Example for Free

The International Expansion of Design Practices Essay Designing world-class structures is now made easier with software that any architect in the globe may use in the privacy of his home.   3D modeling, rendering and animation software is but an example of such specialized software, making it easier for architects around the world to compete in designing architectural marvels (Advanced Micro Systems, Inc.).   As a matter of fact, architects are already competing to create the world’s best designs.   By their interaction alone, the world of design must be raising its levels of competence to build finer, safer and more beautiful buildings (Coduto).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Kalo Opera Festiva and Danske Arkitekters Landsforbund (the federation of Danish Architects), together with investors were expected to initiate an international architectural competition around the end of the year 2003 (â€Å"International Architectural Competition†).   In the year 2004, the Friends of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights Inc. announced that there were three architectural firms selected by the Architectural Review Committee in one of the stages of the International Architectural Design Competition (ArcSpace.com).   Then there are international competitions that encompass only a specified region.   In Asia, ten architectural companies from Thailand were chosen for an international reward in the year 2005 (Asia Africa Intelligence Wire).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Unsurprisingly, such international competitions urge today’s architect to not only improve his designs by learning from global talents that he competes with, but also to work on becoming the very best in the global field of design practices.   Twenty four design firms from all over the globe submitted proposals to compete for the position of Master Designer of the Orange County Great Park (PR Newswire).   Undoubtedly, all of the proposals submitted were excellent, and world-class!   However, only one architect was to become a true model for the rest of the architectural community to follow.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As mentioned before, architects are getting together at the regional level as well.   This practice is also very healthy for their profession.   The city of the angels regularly lists its top architectural firms, each inspiring the others (Kissock).   The American Institute of Architects claims that â€Å"good design makes a difference.†Ã‚   This association of architects describes itself thus: â€Å"For almost 150 years, members of The American Institute of Architects have worked with each other and their communities to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings and cityscapes.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The architectural community in Australia is said to have received many international awards for its designs (Johnston).   What is more, the entire international community of architects has its own list of top international design firms (KEO International Consultants)!   The competition is stiff, and absolutely healthy.   Under the watchful guiding eye of the top-notch international community of architects, it is difficult for an architectural firm to make an inferior design and thereby endanger the safety of the people who would be occupying the building thus designed.   The world of architectural design is expecting improved output at all levels and at all times.   This international expansion of design practices makes for a safer and more beautiful world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Given the above facts, we hypothesize that the international expansion of design practices is good for the architectural profession.   With the advent of the Internet and the glories of globalization and technology, it is expected that architects around the world must have seen massive improvements in their designs, seeing that they now have access to superior designs from around the world that serve as models in their work.   In this case, as in most others, global heads are better than one! Bibliography Advanced Micro Systems, Inc. (2007). Available at http://www.amsystems.com. (25 January 2007). ArcSpace.com. (24 May 2004). â€Å"International Architectural Design Competition.† Available at http://www.arcspace.com/architects/Predock/canada_museum. (25 January 2007). Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. (4 March 2005). â€Å"Thai Architectural Firms Receive International Award.† Available at http://www.accessmylibrary.com/comsite5/bin/pdinventory.pl?pdlanding=1referid=2930purchase_type=ITMitem_id=0286-18970560. (25 January 2007). Coduto, Donald. (2005). Foundation Design: Principles and Practices. USA: Prentice Hall. International Architectural Competition. Available at http://www.operafest.dk/uk/?Kalo+Opera+Festival/International+Architectural+Competition. (25 January 2007). Johnston, Lindsey. â€Å"The Sun Shines on Architectural Education in Australia.† The International Education Site. Available at http://www.intstudy.com/articles/twearch.htm. (25 January 2007). Keo International Consultants. (2006). Available at http://www.keoic.com/. (25 January 2007). Kissock, Nancy. (12 March 2001). â€Å"Architectural Firms.† Los Angeles Business Journal. Available at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m5072/is_11_23/ai_71841058. (25 January 2007). PR Newswire. â€Å"International Architectural Firms Compete to Design Orange County Great Park.† Available at http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109STORY=/www/story/06-03-2005/0003775011EDATE. (25 January 2007). The American Institute of Architects. (2007). Available at http://www.aia.org/about_default. (25 January 2007).

The three models of exchange rate determination

The three models of exchange rate determination Abstract This paper presents three models of exchange rate determination. Each models are based on the equilibrium of markets in the international economy. The equilibrium of goods market determine exchange rate according to purchasing power parity; the equilibrium of money market determine exchange rate according to monetary model; the equilibrium of asset markets determine exchange rate according to portfolio model. Introduction It is in the interest of a variety of parties to understand the determinants of exchange rates. For economists, it is for their intellectual and academic pursuit to uncover the economic mechanism determining exchange rates. Policymakers would like to understand the impacts and consequences of exchange rates to the policies and vice versa. Finance managers would like analyze the fundamental factors determining exchange rates and incorporate these factors in their financial or investment decision making. Speculators in foreign exchange market would like to know the direction of exchange rate movement aforehand to make profit. In the following, we explain three models of exchange rate determination, namely, the purchasing power parity(PPP), the monetary model and the portfolio balance theory. Purchasing Power Parity The theoretical assumption of Purchasing Power Parity starts from the Law of One Price. The Law of One Price in open economy states that, if the market is competitive, no transaction cost and no barriers of trade, then identical products in different countries should be sold at the same prices, adjusted by exchange rate, i.e. under the same currency denomination. Otherwise, there is arbitrage opportunity. In notation, pi =spi* (1) for pi = price of good i at home country, pi*= price of good i at foreign country, s = exchange rate For example, the price an ounce of gold quoted at London in GBP should be the same as an ounce of gold quoted at New York in USD times exchange rate of GBP/USD. Next, we consider a model with two countries. Both of them have the floating exchange rate-regimes and Law of One Price holds for all goods in the two counties. Then, the general price level of home country is should be the same as the general price level of foreign country, adjusted by exchange rate. In notation, P=sP* (2) for P= general price level at home country, P*= general price level at foreign country P and P*, the general price level is the weighted average of all prices of goods. So if (1) holds for all goods, (2) will holds. (2) is what we called the absolute Purchasing Power Parity (absolute PPP): the general price level of every country should be the same if adjusted to the same currency. In other words, the exchange rate should be determined by the relative price level of two countries. If you can use $1 of home currency to buy a basket of goods at home country, then the $1 converted to foreign currency should be able to buy the same basket of products in foreign country, i.e. they have the same purchasing power. We can interpret that PPP is a long-run equilibrium level of exchange rate that there is fundemental force of demand and supply in goods market to retain it. For example, assume that the domestic price level is higher than the foreign price level under the same currency measure, i.e. P > sP*. If goods are identical and there is transaction cost and barriers of trade, then consumers from domestic country will not buy local products. They will use their domestic currency to exchange to foreign currency to buy foreign products, which is cheaper. The force of supply and demand of currency will drives down exchange rate to depreciate. In turn, depreciation of exchange rate will lower the price of domestic products(under the same currency measure) and then the PPP equilibrium, P = sP* is retained. Yet the absolute PPP to be too strict, economists considers a weaker form, called the relative PPP. It states that percentage changes in price levels of two countries determine the percentage change in exchange rate. In notation, ΆP/P = Άs/s +ΆP*/P* (3) The relative PPP is a weaker form of absolute PPP because if absolute PPP holds true, the relative PPP holds true also but not vice versa. Moreover, change in price level is indeed the inflation rate. The relative PPP implies that exchange rate should be adjustedΆe/e to the difference between two countries inflation rates. For example, a country with hyperinflation should encounter substantial depreciation in its currency. Empirical Support The Purchasing Power Parity states that relative price level is a fundamental determinant of exchange rate. An empirical test would like to see whether there is such a relationship in historical data. The PPP hypothesis has be enormously and extensively tested empirically by economists. The extensive tests by economists found very little empirical support to PPP. Exchange rate and the relative price level are unrelated in short run and medium run. In the long run, results found that exchange rate would converge to the theoretical equilibrium value from PPP, but at a very slow rate. At the first glace, PPP seems to be a too strict hypothesis that its assumption is unlikely to hold. In reality, there is transaction cost and barriers of trade. The general price levels indeed include non-tradable goods and different countries have different components in their general price level. These deviations of the theoretical PPP will cause the domestic price level and foreign price level not converges, but retain at some deviated level. Literature Review Officer (1982) contains a detailed summary on the theoretical and empirical works on PPP at early stage. Rogoff (1996) provides a more update survey on PPP and their empirical tests. Taylor Taylor (2004) uses more complete data and more powerful econometric tests, as they describe, retain similarly result as previous scholars. Monetary model As exchange rate is the relative price of two currencies, it is reasonable to consider the supply and demand of money be an important determinant of exchange rates. Introduction of money supply and money demand, two very fundamental macroeconomic variables, into our models The monetary approach rests on the quantity theory of money in macroeconomics. Firstly, Money supply (Ms) is a quantity determined by the central bank. In the quantity theory, money is for the purpose of medium of exchange. Money demand of an economy is directly proportional to the general price level and also the quantity of real output. For example, if the general price level is doubled, then the economy would need double amount of money for their transactions. The same idea holds for quantity of real output. Then, Md = kPy (4) Where Md is money demand, P is the price level, y is the real output and k is the velocity of money. In equilibrium, Money supply must be equal money demand, and so: Ms = kPy (5) By rearranging, we have P= Ms/ky (6) By this form, we can interpret that given a level of real output of the economy and a given level of money supply determined by the central bank, the price level of the economy will be adjusted to Ms/ky. Let * denotes the foreign currency variables. We assume the quantity theory of money holds true to foreign country also. We have Ms*= k*P*y* (7) The second important assumption of the monetary approach is that PPP holds true. The exchange rate always attains its PPP equilibrium level, as in (2). In the monetary approach, we have three relationships of variables now: the quantity money of home country, quantity money of foreign country, and PPP. Combining there three relationships and rearranging the three equations, we have: Ms/ ky = S Ms*/ k*y* (8) The quantity theory of money and PPP are two building blocks of the monetary approach. The PPP tells us that at the long run equilibrium, the exchange rate should be equal to the ratio of home and foreign price level. The quantity theory of money marcoeconomics describes that price level of a country is related to money supply of central bank and real output of the economy. Combining them, the monetary approach concluded that exchange is determined by domestic and foreign money supply (Ms Ms*), domestic and foreign real output (y y*), and domestic and foreign velocity of money(k k*). An important implication of the monetary approach is that central banks money supply policy would have primary impact to exchange rate. Start with the domestic central bank suddenly increase the money supply by a substantial amount, with all other domestic and foreign variables keep unchanged. The quantity theory of money implies that the rise of money supply without increase in real output will drives up the domestic price level, which means inflation also. The increase in domestic price level will induce domestic people to buy more foreign products and cause the exchange rate to depreciate. This is the same equilibrating mechanism described in PPP. We may consider the magnitude of depreciation of currency by increase of domestic money supply. According to equation (x), exchange rate, s, is directly proportional to Ms. So in the monetary approach, a given percentage increase in money supply will leads to the same percentage of depreciation of currency. A natural consequence of the above analysis is to see if foreign money supply would leads to what kind change of exchange rate. From equation (x), we can see that foreign money supply Ms* comes into determining the exchange rate. If the foreign central bank increase money supply, the foreign currency would depreciate as by our previous analysis. Then, in turn, the domestic currency would appreciate relatively. On the other hand, we may consider the effect of an increase in real output on exchange rate in the monetary approach. Given a fixed level of money supply, real output increase will leads to lowering price level, as described in the quantity theory of money. Then, on the open economy side, the exchange rate must appreciate, making the local products more expensive, to preserve the PPP equilibrium. So we can conclude that a rise in real output(GDP) will leads to appreciation of the domestic currency, given other thing else constant. Empirical Evidence The monetary approach is largely based on PPP. Given the failure of PPP on empirical testing, it is not difficult to imagine that empirical test on the monetary model of exchange rates should found little support. Extensive tests have been carried out to examine the relationship between exchange rate vs. money supply and exchange rate vs. real output. As representative, Frenkel (1976) and Meese Rogoff (1983) shows little empirical support on the Monetary approach. Literature review Johnson (1977) portrays a model treatment of the monetary model of exchange rates. Frenkel (1976) and Meese Rogoff (1983) are representative empirical works on the monetary approach. Portfolio Balance Model In the monetary model, the global economy is simplified as having goods and money only, and money is the medium of exchange to buy domestic and foreign goods. Exchange rates are determined by the relative demand and supply of money, domestic and foreign. The portfolio balance model takes a further step from the monetary model that there are investment assets in the global economy for people to hold. People would consider holding money, domestic assets and foreign assets alternatively on their portfolio balance. Then the relative demand and supply of these investment assets would determine the exchange rate. The portfolio balance model assumes there are three kinds of assets for people to allocate their total wealth: Domestic money (M), domestic bond (B), and foreign bond (FB). Domestic money (M), pays no interest, is a riskless asset. In term of finance, the risk-free rate is zero in this simplified model. Domestic bond and foreign bond are risky assets that payout with, with interest rate rand r* respectively. Then the actual interest rate individual receive from foreign bond is sr*. The portfolio balance model of exchange rate makes further assumption in line with modern portfolio theory. Domestic bond and foreign bond are not perfect substitutes. Holding domestic and foreign bond together in the portfolio would reduce the unsystematic risk. So people would not simply hold the bond with higher yield only, but hold a portfolio of domestic and foreign bonds. Moreover, the individuals, being are risk-averse and so they would hold some portion of riskless asset, the money. The individuals have a total wealth of W would decide how to allocate them into money, domestic bond and foreign bond respectively based on his risk preference and the returns of different assets, as in modern portfolio theory. He would purchase more of one asset if the return of the asset increase, or if the return of the alternative assets decrease. In summary, Demand of money = M(r, sr*) is decreasing in r and sr* Demand of domestic bond = B(r, sr*) is increasing in r and decreasing in sr*. Demand of foreign bond = FB(r, sr*) is increasing in sr* and decreasing in r. Total wealth, the supply of various assets, would equal to the demand of various assets., such that W = M(r, sr*) + B(r, sr*) + BF(r, sr*) (9) It means that, in equilibrium, there would be some equilibrium value of r, r* and s to balance demand and supply. To focus on the role of exchange rate in this model, we may consider r and r* as given to be stable by the bond markets and only the exchange rate varies. The equation above can be simplified as: W = M(s) + B(s) + BF(s) (10) Then, there will be a value of s to equalize the demand of various assets to total wealth. In other words, the exchange rate is determined by the equilibrium across the money, domestic bond and foreign bond markets in this portfolio balance model. Implications and evidence of portfolio balance model One of the most important implications from the portfolio balance model is that current account surplus will be associated with depreciation of currency. Current account surplus must be associated with capital account deficit, which means that the country is a net purchaser of foreign assets. The demand of foreign bond increase and so exchange rate would depreciate for the equilibrium in asset markets to restore. However, as noted by Copeland (2008), the tests of portfolio balance model, is far from satisfactory. Literature review Several articles by Branson propelled the portfolio balance model, and include empirical evidence also. Branson (1983) provides a good account of summary. Conclusions We have reviewed three different models on exchange rates. The PPP, the most fundamental one, claims that price level is the fundamental determinant of exchange rates in the long run. The market force of goods arbitrage would push the exchange rate to the equilibrium level that balance the purchasing power of the different currency to the same level. The monetary model incorporates the classical quantity theory of money in marcoeconomics with purchasing power parity. It predicts that money supply, determined by the central bank, and real output are the determinants of exchange rate. The third theory, the portfolio balance model extends the monetary model from considering the money market to the markets of a number of assets. Individuals demand each type of assets and exchange rate is determined as the equilibrium price of various asset markets. All of the models we discussed are laid on fundamental economic theory and are conceptually sound. Unfortunately, economists found little direct empirical support to these models. We should not consider rejecting these three models because of the lack of empirical support. Firstly, these three models are conceptually fundamental and shape our thinking in exchange rates. They will be extremely useful when we extend our analysis with specifications in further detail and seek more specific implications in exchange rate. Secondly, these models portray the long-run equilibrium behavior of the exchange market. It is difficult to consider the volatile, second-to-second changing exchange rate market behavior would be consistent with these models. There may exists random shocks to the exchange rate market that consistently propel the exchange rate to move in a random style and so the long-run equilibrium of the models cannot be attained.

Corporate Governance UK USA

Corporate Governance UK USA A statutory response to Corporate Governance: A Critique Compare and contrast UK and USA responses to Corporate Governance Introduction My dissertation will focus on the examination and the comparison of the corporate governance practices followed in UK and USA. The extensive reforms that have taken place in the particular sector have led to the development of many doubts regarding the effectiveness and the credibility of the corporate governance systems applied on these two countries. For this reason, the examination of the particular issue is considered to be really valuable offering to researchers and managers around the world the chance to understand the various aspects of corporate governance and align (where possible) their business strategies with the relevant corporate governance principles applied on each specific market (referring to the cases of UK and USA). Moreover, this study could help to the identification of any potential weaknesses of the corporate governance policies applied on UK and USA suggesting appropriate reforms on the relevant rules. Background: Business activities around the world have often caused the interest of governments within the particular states. The reason is that all parts of these activities need to be appropriately regulated in order to offer adequate and effective protection to the stakeholders and the public in general (referring mostly to protection from severe financial losses that can threat the viability of the company but even the level of the development of the local economy – when the firm under examination is a well established one, eg Enron). However, because there are many differences in corporate structure internationally, it is necessary for legislators to each specific state to try to adapt the legal principles that are related with business activity with the social and cultural characteristics of each particular state; the size of the firm and its culture should be also taken into consideration. The particular issue was examined by Douglas et al. (1989, 440) who noticed that ‘differ ences in environmental conditions in different country markets, in terms, for example, of market size and growth, rate of technological change, or barriers to entry, may also lead to differences in strategy’. In other words, corporate activity is a complex network of actions and initiatives that need a careful review and close monitoring by the governmental authorities in order to ensure the safety of the transactions without influencing the development of the various corporate projects. As noticed above, the dissertation will focus on the examination of a specific aspect of corporate activity: the corporate governance. The latter can refer to a series of elements within a particular organisation starting from the principles that should be applied to the governance of a firm up to the relationships between the employer (board of directors) and the employees. On the other hand, globally two major corporate governance systems are recognised: the liberal form of corporate governance (UK and USA) in which the interests of shareholders are considered to be the major priority for legislators when developing laws related with business activities. In accordance with the coordinative model (accepted mostly by Europe and Japan) the interests of other participants (in the corporate activities) like employees, customers and suppliers are considered to have a crucial role in the formulation of the laws regulating business activities. This study will refer primarily to the corpora te governance schemes applied in UK and USA. For this reason, the corporate governance system of these two countries will be analytically presented highlighting the potential differences and also the advantages of each one of them within the modern market. From another point of view, the examination of the various aspects of corporate governance cannot be achieved without the analytical presentation of the characteristics of corporate governance through an appropriately customised definition. In this context, it is stated by Buck et al. (2005, 42) that ‘corporate governance and governance institutions in general terms are concerned with the means by which a firms stakeholders control the decisions of senior managers; these stakeholders can include shareholders, executive directors, employees who are not executives, customers, creditors, suppliers (including banks as suppliers of credit), competitors, and the State’. From another point of view, Pedersen (1999, 45) supported that ‘corporate governance the mechanisms by which companies are controlled and directed is a complex subject that consists of owner-manager relations, stakeholder relations, board structures and practices, management compensation, capital struct ure, company law, and other variables’. Both the above definitions present the particular aspects of corporate governance within the modern market; no differentiation in corporate structure seems to be made in accordance with the principles of the state of activity (or the state of origin). On the other hand, the study of Fort (2000, 829) led to the conclusion that ‘corporate governance can be described as the top management process that manages and mediates value creation for, and value transference among, various corporate claimants in a context that ensures accountability to these claimants’. In accordance with the above definition the development of the various aspects of corporate activities is decided by the firm’s managers; the intervention of the state is rather limited. Indeed, the increase of the power of top management in modern businesses around the world is also highlighted by the literature and the empirical research. In a relevant report it is noticed that ‘the principal weakness of corporate governance today is the excessive concentration of power in the hands of top management; rebalancing or equalising this power is a prerequisite for controlling management fraud and promoting accurate financial reporting’ (CPA Journal, 2008). The above described concentration of power can have severe consequences for both the stakeholders and the public in general. In the case of Enron the concentration of power in the firm’s top managers led to the unexpected collapse of the firm and the development of severe turbulences in American economy. Literature Review Corporate governance – general aspects Firms that operate within the modern market have to face a series of challenges related with both their internal and external environment. In this context, it is supported by Wooldridge et al. (2001, 17) that ‘the main challenge for companies in a global economy is to situate themselves in various centers of excellence and weave together different centers of excellence into a global production network’. From a different point of view, Gooderham et al. (1999, 507) noticed that ‘despite their very different assumptions, both rational and institutional explanations of organizational structure and management practices predict similarity among firms that operate in the same industry within the context of a simple country’. In other words, the regulation of business activities today can be effective only if it takes into consideration the various aspects of these activities as they are formulated within the modern market – taking always into consideration t he changes in the needs of the firm’s shareholders but also in the needs of the stakeholders. On the other hand, it is clear that extensive differentiations can be observed in the methods of corporate governance applied to modern firms in accordance with the social and cultural characteristics of these firms but also the social and cultural context of the country in which the firms’ operations are based. The theoretical and empirical research has proved that significant differences can be observed in all aspects of business activities in accordance with the social and cultural characteristics of a specific region – where business activities are mainly developed. The differences mentioned above can refer to specific management issues or they can refer to all business context. In the case of British firms, Scullion (1994, 86) noticed that ‘very few British companies can claim to have a truly international top management team’. Other issues of corporate activity may be differentiated under the influence of the social and cultural trends applied on a specific country/ region. In order to understand the importance of corporate governance for the development of the business activities, we should refer primarily to a clear description of the interests existed within any corporation: the stakeholders from one side and the shareholders from the other. Regarding this issue, it is noticed that ‘stakeholders, broadly defined as society as a whole, are interested in the collateral benefits derived from the success of the enterprise, such as the abundance of a product or a service, a clean environment, or a general rise in the standard of living; stockholders have a dual interest in the success of the enterprise: direct interest as a reward for their investment, and collateral benefit as stakeholders’ (CPA Journal, 2008). The conflict of interests of these two sides can lead to the development of severe turbulences within the organization. On the other hand, in firms that the interests of both these sides are protected it is very likely that there will be no severe problems in the communication and the cooperation between these parties towards the increase of the firm’s performance. It should be noticed that the principles of corporate governance are primarily stated by the governmental authorities (referring to the firms of a particular country). Apart from these orders, the international community can intervene in the business activities presenting a series of standards that should be met in the corporate activities worldwide. OECD is a well known international organization that provides appropriate solutions to a series of issues related with international business activities. The specific organization has set several rules regarding the various aspects of corporate governance. In accordance with these rules: ‘’all shareholders should be treated equally; insider trading and abusive-self dealing should be prohibited; capital structures and arrangements that enable certain shareholders to obtain a degree of control disproportionate to their equity ownership should be disclosed’ (OECD, 2004, 18-19). It is clear from the above rules that inter national organizations can set rules regarding business activities around the world; however these rules can be characterized rather as ‘principles’ of commerce being similar with the ethics held in corporate activities worldwide. Corporate governance in Britain In the case of Britain, the regulation of business activities is realized through the application of a series of legislative texts and orders. The history of business activity in the particular country was examined by Pedersen (1999, 45) who noticed that ‘the industrial revolution took its beginning in the United Kingdom more than 250 years ago; therefore, the hypothesis of greater differentiation in the early industrialized nations than in later industrialized nations can be tested by examining the extent to which the corporate governance structures of U.K. firms are more or less similar to the governance structures of firms in other nations’. In other words, Britain is a country with a significant history in business activities. The importance of the latter in the economy should be considered as extremely high. For this reason the legislator pays a significant attention to the development of the appropriate legal framework for the regulation of the various aspects of c orporate governance. The above assumption is in accordance with the view of Kay (1995, 84) who supported that ‘British statute law is virtually silent on how corporations are to be organised; since the corporation is regarded as a creation of private contract, obligations on companies are mainly there to prevent abuse of the privilege of limited liability, and concern formal matters such as registration and audit’. Because of the above phenomenon, additional legislative texts (as described below) have been introduced and applied in order to support the effective regulation of all corporate governance in British firms (foreign firms that operate in Britain may have the right to claim the application of the laws of their country of origin – it depends on the law applicable on each case taking into account the firm’s articles of association but also the legislation of the country of origin and the country of operations). However, it could be noticed that the British statute law recognizes to the firm’s leaders (board of directors) the right to decide on the firm’s corporate governance. The legal framework applied in UK regarding the corporate governance includes a variety of legislative texts: ‘Common law rules (e.g. directors fiduciary duties). Statute (notably the Companies Act 1985). A companys constitutional documents (the memorandum and articles of association). The Listing Rules, which apply to all companies that are listed on the Official List (or AIM Rules, as appropriate). The Combined Code on Corporate Governance; the Code is supplemented by: the Turnbull Guidance (relating to the internal control requirements of the Code), the Smith Guidance (on audit committees and auditors) and suggestions of good practice from the Higgs Review. Non-legal guidelines issued by bodies that represent institutional investors (such as the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) and the Pensions Investment Research Consultants (PIRC). In the context of takeovers of public companies, the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers and the rules of the Takeover Panel apply. The Financial Services Authoritys Code of Market Conduct (relating to the disclosure and use of confidential and price sensitive information and the creation of a false market)’ (Metropolitan Corporate Cousel, 2008) In other words, corporate governance in Britain is regulated by a series of legal texts the most important of which is the Combined Code on Corporate Governance as described above. The specific Code includes provisions that refer to all particular aspects of corporate governance of firms operating in Britain; however because in some cases additional provisions may be required (like in the case of a merger) it is possible that other legislative texts are used in order for the relevant issues to be appropriately addressed. In any case the common law rules and the Companies Act of 1985 are applied (the former are rules that can be applied in any dispute – whenever necessary – whether the latter can be applied in any issue related with the business activity – i.e. not only to the corporate governance). Corporate governance in USA On the other hand, in USA there is no Code for the regulation specifically of the corporate governance issues; instead a series of laws and courts’ decisions can be used in order to resolve problems that are related with the corporate governance of firms operating across the country. There are certain issues that are regulated directly by the law but these are limited; in the high majority of the disputes appeared in the area of firms’ corporate governance various statutes and other legislative texts can be applied. In accordance with a report published recently in USA ‘corporate governance practices in the United States are not regulated by any one particular statute but instead are affected by the governing instruments, the corporate law and the court decisions of each issuer’s state of incorporation, and, in the case of many publicly-owned issuers, by the U.S. federal securities laws and requirements of the national securities markets (Security and Excha nge Commission of Brazil, 2008). On the other hand, it should be noticed that corporate governance issues are likely to be regulated differently by each one of the 50 states of USA. In this context, the Sarbanes-Oxley law which was introduced in 2002 has been formulated in order to offer a valuable legislative base for the regulation of various issues referring to the corporate governance of firms across USA. The above is considered to have influenced also the UK legislation related with the corporate governance. Regarding the specific legislative text it is noticed by Tran (2004) that ‘Sarbanes-Oxley, which called for tighter internal company controls, caused a rethink of   corporate governance laws in the UK as well, with the publication of the Higgs report, written by Derek Higgs, the former investment banker’. The effectiveness of Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002 has been extensively criticized. In accordance with Atkins (commissioner in United States Securities and Exchan ge Commission, 2003) the specific legislative text ‘contains many advances for corporate governance and attempts to provide best practices to prevent the misdeeds that have led to the investor losses. Many of these ideas are not new, but have been floating around in one form or another for quite a number of years’ (Atkins, 2003). In other words, Sarbanes-Oxley Act has been introduced in order to resolve specific problems in corporate governance for firms operating in USA; in the long term the achievement of this target can be doubted and only the examination of the consequences of application of this Act in practice could lead to a ‘safe’ assumption regarding the particular issue. It is for this reason that the incorporation of the empirical research (questionnaire) in current study has been considered as necessary. Research question and objectives In accordance with the issues developed above, current study will focus on the regulation of corporate governance in two specific countries: UK and USA. Because the particular issues can include a variety of aspects, it is necessary for the relevant research to be expanded to the following questions: a) which is the current trends in corporate governance around the world, b) which are the major differences between the corporate governance practices followed by the Anglo-American countries and the countries of continental Europe/ Japan, c) which are the benefits and the pitfalls of the statutes and the other legislative texts applied on UK and USA regarding the corporate governance d) which are the most common problems related with the corporate governance in these two countries. References Atkins, P. (2003) Recent Experience With Corporate Governance in the USA, online, available at http://www.sec.gov/news/speech/spch062603psa.htm Buck, T., Shahrim, A. (2005) The Translation of Corporate Governance Changes across National Cultures: The Case of Germany. Journal of International Business Studies, 36(1): 42-69 CPA Journal (2008) A Comprehensive Structure of Corporate Governance in Post-Enron Corporate America http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2004/1204/essentials/p46.htm Fort, T., Schipani, C. (2000) Corporate Governance in a Global Environment: The Search for the Best of All Worlds. Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, 33(4): 829-859 Kim, H. (1995) Markets, Financial Institutions, and Corporate Governance: Perspectives from Germany. Law and Policy in International Business, 26(2): 371-405 OECD Principles of Corporate Governance (2004), available at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/18/31557724.pdf Pedersen, T., Thomsen, S. (1999) Business Systems and Corporate Governance. International Studies of Management Organization, 29(2): 43-54 Scullion, H., (1994) ‘Staffing policies and strategic control in British multinationals’, International Studies of Management and Organization, 24(3): 86-97 Security and Exchange Commission of Brazil (2008) available at http://www.cvm.gov.br/ingl/inter/cosra/corpgov/usa-e.asp Tran, M. (2004) USA: Corporate Governance Law Too Strict available at http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11374 Metropolitan Corporate Counsel (2008) Corporate Governance In The UK And U.S. Comparison http://www.metrocorpcounsel.com/current.php?artType=viewartMonth=DecemberartYear=2005EntryNo=3957

Methods of Fusion :: Nuclear

Methods of Fusion Abstract Nuclear fusion was discussed in this paper. First, the reader is given an introduction to nuclear power and is then led to fission/fusion. Fusion is discussed as being better than fission and reasons are given as to why that is so. Fusion methods are then discussed and current and planned machines are placed for discussion. Lastly, the machines are summarized. Introduction Today, you hear news about nuclear power. But what is nuclear power? Well, in an atom, there is a force known as the strong nuclear force, which exists in atoms. The first way is fission, which breaks the atom apart using some method. This is the method that is currently providing 20% of the power in the power grid. The other less developed method is still in the testing stage but the basic concept is fusion. Hydrogen isotopes (atoms with different numbers of neutrons) are combined together using several different methods which will be discussed later. This results in bonds, which generate energy (Jensen 2006). Discussion Now you know how fission is being utilized throughout the world, and you have a basic idea of how nuclear power works. However, there is a problem with nuclear fission being that there are many dangers. For one, nuclear fission creates nuclear waste, which cannot be destroyed and must be stored somewhere. Also, this waste is radioactive which makes the life surrounding the waste exposed to radiation and as a result, the waste destroys the nearby ecosystem. Also, if there happens to be a meltdown, radiation could spread for miles depending on the wind and kill many people. Take Chernobyl for example. There was a nuclear reactor there that meltdown. As a result, the area in a 20- Methods of Fusion mile radius around the plant had to be evacuated because the radiation levels were so high. The fuel is uncommon and takes time to purify in some cases. The solution to this problem is to use nuclear fusion. Through this, humankind has a much better way to create energy on the scale of MW. Not to mention, the fuel needed for nuclear fusion is only deuterium and tritium, which is an isotope of hydrogen, the most common element on Earth. Also, the energy output is very high. For example, JET, the Joint European Tokomak can produce 16 MW in one pulse. That’s 16 million watts. Also, the waste product of the fusion reactor is not radioactive but is instead helium.

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier :: The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier was a book that we read in class, it was about good and evil. It is about how the to forces battle for superiority over one another. The book tells how one of the sides over powers the other to claim its spot on top. The people are like pawns to two of the characters, Archie and Brother Leon because they use the people to get what they want from them, and will stop at nothing to get it. Both of characters will stop at nothing to have what they want, which is to have the power over the school.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The good characters even though few in number are willing to go the distance (especially for Jerry). Jerry is the main character of the story. He has a struggle with in himself to do the right thing. He mess with the wrong people in the school and they make him pay for it, because no one can mess with the Vigils and get away with it. He was to refuse to take chocolates for ten days. However he still refuses to take the chocolates after the ten days. Brother Jacques is another one of the good guys because he sees that Brother Leon is truely an evil man and abuses his power the power that he has over the kids. He saves Jerry at the of the story from the boxing match. Goober is a good person with a big heart, but is not to smart to get out when in to deep helping Jerry to get out. All that he wanted to do was to play football and to run.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is more of a power struggle among the evil side for them to want to work together. Archie is the Vigils’ Assigner giver. Archie has a struggle with Brother Leon and Carter. First a struggle with Leon because both are trying to carrie the power of the school. Second with Carter both trying to control the Vigils. Carter the president of the Vigils puts Archie on probation tries to stab him in the back at the boxing match using the black box. He smashes Jerry in practice every day just because he can do the. Brother Leon is a sadistic teacher because of the things that he does to the kid in his class, like when he put Bailey in front of the class and smacked him on the cheek with a pointer.

Decision making software Essay

The term ambivalence refers to the concept of uncertainty or fluctuation, especially when caused by inability to make a choice or by the simultaneous desire to say or do two opposite or conflicting things. This state of ambivalence manifests itself throughout people’s everyday lives. The choices and decisions one makes, whether it be small or large, causes a sense of uncertainty within him/her. Through this uncertainty, a feeling of tension forms with one’s sense of self. The tension is derived from the imminent choice one must conclude with. People may expect to make an ideal choice when one doesn’t actually exist. †¦the problem with making a choice for one option is that you have to give up every other possibility — that is, you have to limit yourself to the one thing you’ve chosen and renounce all the others. (Burgo) There seems to be two things at the root of ambivalence—the choice and the fear of the choice. The quote stated above by Dr. Joseph Burgo elucidates that the challenge of ambivalence is a matter of choice (people don’t want to actually have to choose). Humans, by nature, are selfish beings who crave and desire all the values they are able to attain. In the event that one must choose between two ve’ry appealing options, that person is flooding with ambivalence. The person is so torn because he/she desires both options but sees that it is impossible to do so. Both choices are appealing but a decision must be made. Within the aspect of choice, there is always the case of fear within one making the decision. We may be afraid of loss or regret if we choose â€Å"badly†, and/or we may fear the savagery of our own conscience if we make a â€Å"mistake†. (Burgo) A person becomes afraid of making a choice, especially if making a decision can negatively impact them. He/she also becomes fearful of losing the other option when choosing the other due to the fact that in most cases, once a decision is made it is finally—there is no going back. There is also the aspect that one’s choices can affect another person or the opinion of that person making the choice. If one choices something, he/she may very well lose someone who does not agree with that choice. Ambivalence reflects an intense fear of the consequences involved in choosing. One example that can demonstrate these aspects of ambivalence is pregnancy—trying to choose between life and abortion. On one end, a woman has the option of keeping the baby, raising it, caring for and loving it, watching it grow old while ruining her reputation or have a living reminder of the father (if the father is not in the picture or is a rapist). At the other end, she can kill the unborn fetus and kill any chance of that fetus having a life, but the woman can retain her life not have to take on the responsibility of caring for a child. The two choices she has both contain â€Å"pros† and â€Å"cons. † The woman might become afraid of the choice she must make because if she chooses life, she will have to have the responsibility of taking care of a living being and people will judge her; she also might fear she does not possess the resources to help maintain the life of the baby (money for food, diapers, bottles, etc. ). If the woman were to choose abortion, she might be fearful because she will being killing something human, something that is a part of her, something that is alive. She could be consumed in guilt because she might consider herself selfish and a murderer. The woman would also become afraid that she might lose some people who are important to her because of the people’s opinions; she will lose people either way. The woman has become ambivalent on this subject and does not want to choose; not because she wants both, but because she doesn’t want the consequence of the choices she makes. Meyer 3 Another example that could elucidate this notion of ambivalence is the common subject of love. Often times, women and men become ambivalent when the event of loving two people arises. For instance, a woman desires two men that are both appealing to her. It can be seen here that the woman does not wish to really choose between them, she wants them both. However, she realizes that this desire to possess both is unattainable. Further analyzing this situation, one could argue that the woman cannot truly love the first man because if she did, why did she fall for the second? Taking this concept into mind, one might say that the ambivalence does not lie with the woman not being able to choose between the men but with the woman not being able to choose what she likes most in the men’s characteristics. Bringing in the fear of losing one of the men she loves, her ambivalence has escalated. Also, the fact of the matter is, the woman always want perfect relationships â€Å"She couldn’t tolerate an authentic (and therefore imperfect) relationship with an actual man but wanted a perfect bond without frustration, conflict or disappointment† (Burgo). Ambivalence is a result of Human’s desire for a plethora of things. The choice one must make when faced with two options creates in them a state of tension. People do not want to have to choose— they want all the choices or none of the choice. However, they realize that a choice must be made. When subject to a choice that might negatively impact he/she, a sense of fear is apparent. The person becomes afraid of losing the option once making his or her decision as most decisions are permanent. Also, one might become fearful of losing someone who does not approve of the choice the person has made.

Employment Labor and Anti-Discrimination Law Essay

You are an employee at a nice paper mill and want to impress the boss by burning the midnight oil (cut not too close to the wood pulp). For four consecutive weeks, you work forty-five, forty-two, thirty-nine, and thirty-one hours. If you are a nonexempt employee covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, how many hours of overtime pay, if any, would you be entitled to? What would be the rate? Fair Labor Standards Act Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 is concerned with child labor, maximum hours, minimum wages, and overtime provisions. Overtime An employee who works more than forty hours over week must be paid 1.5 times his or her regular pay rate for all hours over forty. Employers whose jobs are categorized as executive, administration, or professional, as well as outside salespersons and computer employees, are exempt. Employees who are not exempt include manual laborers and other blue-collar workers who perform tasks involving repetitive operation with their hands (non-management production line employees, for example). Other non-exempt employees include police officers, firefighters, licensed nurses and other public safety workers. Employers can pay overtime to exempt employers if they want to, but they cannot otherwise waive or reduce the overtime requirements. The employee will be paid overtime for the weeks he or she worked the forty-five, forty-two, but not the thirty-nine or the thirty-one hour week.

Evolution of Internet Essay

In the beginning information was limited to newspapers, magazines, later went on to the radio and then the television. As time passed by the one-dimensional approach of information changed into a multi-dimensional trend setting phenomenon thanks to the internet. The convergence of mediums threw up huge areas of possibilities for data management and readership. So now the prior print journalism had changed to broadcast and then now the latest cyber journalism. 5. 1. The Need Internet is used as an alternative for other means of technology such as, †¢ Need of communication †¢ Need for resources †¢ Needs for information and †¢ Need for selling and marketing products 5. 2. World Wide Web The internet led to the development of the World Wide Web for effective and efficient tool of information sharing and communications. This section explains the evolution. 5. 3. Arrival of the Web A Licklider research in 1962 led to the advent of the ARPANET within the next 10 years. The next few years saw the introduction of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, which allowed computers to communicate with each other. Later came the 80s, where the internet came formally into being. Hypertext language (Berners-Lee 1989, 1990) later became the language of the internet. The World Wide Web solved many of the issues faced and came forward with a lot of benefits such as online communities, learning opportunities, email, mailing lists, chat, news and newsgroups, sales, marketing, advertising, e-commerce, net telephony, television and many more. It all started of with the network between universities in 1969, till 1980 it catered to the needs of universities. In 1993, a software Mosaic allowed images and text to be displayed on the internet. This led to the beginning of a revolution of the World Wide Web. Journalism has drastically changed the face of reporting and information gathering. The World Wide Web gives an opportunity to use technology for the benefit of the writer as well as the reader. The need for tools and resources to improve the individual’s journalistic ambitions as well as the organization involved (Garrison, 1998). The steps for journalism are clearly explained in (Hausman, 1992). Some clear principles of web production for web developers (Whittaker) for users besides computer professionals are well explained. This gives an idea of what needs to be done and how it has to be done. Nielsen (1999) explains well the design concepts involved both which are page design, content design, site design and intranet design. According to Sundar (2000) the prime way of attracting readership to internet and print media is the level of interactivity goes beyond images. Internet is a medium in audio, visual, visual effects and animation, along with non-linear narrative structures (Grusin and Bolter, 1999). Online information is a place for data storage so that information can be accessed as and when required, these have become electronic libraries for storage (Koch). In one of the papers (Augustine and Greene, 2002) it is explained that in the case of a library, the students frequently use the search instead of browsing through the pages in the website. So in cases like this the website importance becomes more concentrated on the search factor. So the web designers will have to improve upon the metadata and search engine features to facilitate the students much better. Verlag (2005) gives a detailed description why people do not visit websites. The reasons may be varied but loosing a reader is not a good point for journalism. Information is so massive and so varied that if you search for a topic it will throw up a lot of relevant and irrelevant entries. The net is also a source for fraud, spoofs and indecent matter. It is important that information is filtered based on the search requirement (CNET). 5. 4. Designing the website Websites designed serve different purposes they can be introductory pages, brochures designs for sales and marketing, latest news coverage, online services, business applications and many more. To develop the right website what is required is, †¢ A plan for the site. This plan needs to contain the navigation style, the menu structure and other links. †¢ Layout of website. This refers to the positioning of the website which consists of images, texts, headers, footers and logo. †¢ Content. The information that is going to fill the website. The material such as images, audios and videos, everything needs to be decided. 5. 5. Websites for user-Interaction Most of the websites available allow for user interaction,, these websites can be classified as †¢ Websites for E-Commerce. Where sales and marketing are promoted through advertisements and online transactions. †¢ Website for business purposes. This keeps the users informed about the goings on of business organizations and institutions for B@B and B2C transactions. †¢ Website with user interaction. Forms that is available online for filling such as feedback, contact forms and so on. †¢ Information exchange. Online libraries, digital magazines, news papers, blogs that contain the latest information. 5. 6. Uses of Websites There are a lot of benefits that any industry can get from websites, some of them being †¢ Up-to-date information. The easy design makes updating very simple. †¢ Branding. A company, organisation, person can be put into the limelight by very good brand managing and websites have become a very strong tool for the purpose. †¢ Correspondence. Email, chat, net telephony has made geographical divisions and differences very small, cheap and easy. †¢ Online sales and services. Companies are using the internet to increase their sales and marketing. †¢ Client/Customer satisfaction. Customer relationship management has reached a new level with the internet making interaction personal and secure. 6. Similar Websites Websites are of different types such as business websites, personal websites, governmental websites, private organisation websites and informative websites. These websites provide various themes, such as employment, directory, games, politics and sports. Some websites are studied to analyse what the user is looking for when looking for information. The website results have been consolidated after the research methods used above. 6. 1. Study of website -1 The website being discussed has an exclusive theme of permit free training in the UK. The website voices opinions against the verdict given by the judiciary system. The website keeps doctors of Indian origin updated about rule and regulations regarding their welfare. The team aims to improve the skill of doctors so that their contribution to NHS and is note worthy. The website also helps in petitioning against injustices and atrocities against doctors. It also guides and supports doctors by way of financial assistance and employment assistance. The website assists in many ways and gives information of the organisation their objectives, goals and actions. The user can also subscribe for the newsletter that is available via email. The user can also publish their messages on the online message board. High points of the website – http://www. bapioaction. moonfruit. com/ †¢ Broken Links. There are no broken links. Each page goes to another page. †¢ Writing style. The written style is simple and easy to understand. †¢ Content overview. The website aims to be up-to-date, which is good. So anyone who visits the page is assured of the latest information. Low points of the website †¢ Design of the website. The design is simple but the formats and fonts are not consistent across the webpage. There is too much wastage of space. The alignment and consistency in the pages is missing. †¢ Layout of the website. The website layout is not regular throughout. There are buttons, messages and images all over the place. †¢ Navigation. It is not easy to navigate through the website as there are too many links all over the page. †¢ Time taken to load. The page takes time to load, it is very slow. †¢ Errors. Pages sometimes overload and it is difficult to read as two pages are overlapped. †¢ Download. It opens into another page and then into the download option, which is inconvenient. †¢ Browser compatibility. Mozilla Firefox an Internet Explorer has some problems while opening the pages and displaying contents. †¢ User-friendliness. The website is easy to use but not friendly enough as navigation, formats and all the above mentioned problems.

Life †Religion Essay

In my opinion, there is no specific meaning of life. There also is a part of me that thinks that life really doesn’t have a meaning at all. But, since I have to try to define life, I would have to say it’s a combination of things in your life that you are living for, or the purpose of you being on this earth. Everyone most likely has a different purpose for being alive. Whether it is family, school, or your career; those things have a lot of impact on your life and also decisions that you make throughout life. In our society, many families instill faith and morals early into their children’s lives by continuing traditions or practices of religious faith. The idea of faith and moral beliefs are instilled in a person by attending or participating in church activities and reading the Bible or other religious texts. When there is a sound moral foundation in a person’s life it may give them the motivation through faith to build a sound structure for their life or to achieve personal goals. Simply put, a person may believe through faith that it is possible to achieve an education, start a family, or to have a successful business or career because of their foundation in faith. The reason why I somewhat think that life really doesn’t have a meaning, is because no matter what anyone does or how well or righteous someone lives their life, in the end they still die. What happens after that? Nothing, you never come back nor will you have any recollection of what went on during your lifetime here on earth. A person can bust their behind in working doing good for the community and everything else and in the end you still end up in the same place as everyone else, good people or bad people, you die. Another reason why I believe life doesn’t have a meaning is because all of the people in this world have to suffer, they still go through pain, they have to watch loved ones die, they still have to go through heartache, and rough times. Being poor, homeless, and not having food for as single meal in the day. Where is the meaning in life when people have to wake up hungry or worry about where they will lay their head that night? I’d say there is none when you look at it from that perspective. In my opinion, the meaning of life is too complex for the human brain to comprehend. People tend to say that they know what the meaning of life is, but who really knows the answer. There are various opinions and schools of thought, however, most people can never and will never reach a clear understanding of what the meaning of life is. If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering. †? Viktor E. Frankl. Frankl could not have said this quote any better, most people can say that they have found meaning in their life but at the same time, there are some people wondering if the only reason they are on this earth is to suffer on a daily basis throughout their entire lives.